Conroe City Council considers dropping review of subdivisions outside city limits

By Catherine Dominguez, Staff writer

Updated
12:57 pm CDT, Tuesday, October 30, 2018

With new annexation laws providing fewer opportunities for the city of Conroe, council members are considering discontinuing its review of new subdivisions outside the city limits.

According to Chris Bogart with the city’s engineering department, the time spent doing the platting and plan review for water, sewer and storm systems not related to roads would be better spent focused on new development within the city limits.

“I understand the idea when you were annexing regularly that you wanted to be in charge of your own destiny,” Bogart told the council during its workshop meeting Wednesday regarding the city’s desire to have more control of those areas that they would eventually annex. “But at this point, it seems (annexation) is limited.”

Bogart noted, those subdivisions would still have several steps for review by other entities leaving the city to only approve the reviews. He added the city should leave in place the requirement for municipal utility district to build according to the city’s requirements for development within the city.

In August 2017, Governor Greg Abbott signed into law Senate Bill 6 which limits the power a city has to annex. The bill, which became effective Dec. 1, requires landowner or voter approval of annexations in counties with populations greater than 500,000.

In fact, in September, the council unanimously agreed to remove four parcels of land from a three-year annexation plan after several residents voiced concerns about the action.

The council initially approved moving forward with the annexations late last year in a 3-2 vote. Mayor Pro Tem Duke Coon and Councilman Duane Ham were the nay votes. However, due to newly seated council members and new annexation law, Director of Community Development Nancy Mikeska brought the item back to the council for reconsideration.

Thopse parcels include Lakewood Estates, Lake Conroe Village, Riverbrook and Carriage Hills. The population of those parcels is about 4,000 residents.

Residents, Mikeska said, do have the opportunity to request annexation in the future.

Council will revisit discontinuing its review of that infrastructure at a future meeting.